"We don't cover that"

Infertility. A medical diagnosis you receive from a doctor… yet, many insurance plans in the U.S. don’t cover treatment for infertility. Insurance often covers the cost of the initial testing, including genetic testing, but does not cover the treatment itself or the drugs you will be prescribed throughout.

In our case, my husband’s insurance actually did cover fertility treatments up to a certain dollar threshold, but required that the patient (me, in this case) have been on the insurance plan for at least 1 year before being eligible to receive this benefit. We didn’t realize this until we had already been trying for a year and sought help at a fertility clinic. Major bummer.

So, once we completed the initial testing, we were self pay patients. We spent the equivalent of about 1 year of daycare in our neighborhood on fertility treatments, drugs, and supporting services (acupuncture, etc.). A lot.

I had the idea for this post when I received a pile - two inches high when you stacked it up - of mail from my insurance company. What could this be, I thought? Our clinic recommended that we run most of the initial treatments through our insurance plans on the off chance that they covered a portion of them. I even called my insurance company on several occasions and learned that many of the drugs I was being prescribed were covered, just not for fertility treatments. They were covered if you were using them to manage menopause symptoms, hormonal imbalances, or any number of other reasons - but every single one had the caveat that it was not covered if used for fertility treatments. That was a frustrating realization.

Back to this pile of mail. So, after we submitted the early treatments through insurance, including medications, etc., my insurance company had sent me a denial letter for each individual visit, drug, or procedure. Every one. As if being told over the phone and through the financial counselor at our fertility clinic wasn’t enough. I had to laugh at the absurdity of it all. So here’s my PSA - when you start trying for a family, just check your insurance plan and have a game plan if things don’t go as you had hoped.

The next few posts are about our IVF journey - read on to learn more about #alloftheshots.